Americans Will Feel Paycheck Pinch As Payroll Tax Break Ends In January

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama isn’t talking about it and neither is Mitt Romney. But come January, 163 million workers can expect to feel the pinch of a big tax increase regardless of who wins the election.

A temporary reduction in Social Security payroll taxes is due to expire at the end of the year and hardly anyone in Washington is pushing to extend it. Neither Obama nor Romney has proposed an extension, and it probably wouldn’t get through Congress anyway, with lawmakers in both parties down on the idea.

Even Republicans who have sworn off tax increases have little appetite to prevent one that will cost a typical worker about $1,000 a year, and two-earner family with six-figure incomes as much as $4,500.

Why are so many politicians sour on continuing the payroll tax break?

Read more: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/10/social_security_tax.html

Marcellus Shale Reserves Larger Than Expected

English: Cropped portion of image from USGS report showing extent of Marcellus Formation shale (in gray shading). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

PITTSBURGH, PA – There’s been plenty of debate over the Marcellus Shale natural gas field, but new research adds a twist that could impact political and environmental battles.  Two independent financial firms say the Marcellus isn’t just the biggest natural gas field in the country – it’s the cheapest place for energy companies to drill.

One of the reports adds that the Marcellus reserves that lie below parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and New York are far larger than recent government estimates, while another said the powerful combination of resource, cost and location is altering natural gas prices and market trends across the nation.

The Marcellus could contain “almost half of the current proven natural gas reserves in the U.S.,” a report from Standard & Poor’s issued this week said.

Another recent report from ITG Investment Research, a worldwide financial firm based in New York, found that a detailed analysis of Marcellus well production data suggested that federal government estimates of its reserves “are grossly understated.”

Read more: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/gas-drilling/marcellus-shale-reserves-larger-than-expected-1.1391569

Showing Our Age? Lancaster County Looking At Slowing Growth And Aging Population

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lancaster County is growing, but the growth is slowing.

That report in last week’s Sunday News undoubtedly gave advocates of agricultural preservation and open space cause to celebrate.  After a 30-year period (from 1980 to 2010) of 43.3 percent population growth, the percentage is projected to be 25.5 percent by 2040.

While that translates into another 132,555 residents — moving the population from 519,445 in 2010 to 652,000 in 2040 — what gives us pause is the demographics of the projected growth.

Lancaster County planners said the biggest bump in population is expected to come from people older than 65. In other words, the county, already on its way to becoming a retirement mecca, will be growing by graying.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/760892_Showing-our-age-.html#ixzz2A2c3OHxm

GoggleWorks Arts Festival A Big Draw

Her travel plans to the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts were set a week in advance.

But early Sunday morning, Gail Rosenkrantz woke up in her New York apartment, hailed a cab to the Port Authority and wasn’t quite sure about where she was going.

Finally, after catching the 9 a.m. Bieber Tourways bus to Reading, she sat down and heard the question that was already on her mind:  “Why are you going to Reading?  It’s so dangerous,” another passenger asked.

Upon arriving at her destination, however, the 72-year-old legal secretary walked into the inaugural arts festival Reading and found the soft silk scarves she sought, along with welcoming gestures from strangers.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=422432

Reading To Seek State, Court Nod To Hike 2 Taxes

Editor’s note:  Why is Reading’s budget only about twice as large as Pottstown’s budget when the population is 4 times as large?????

Reading, PA    =  88,082 population  /  Budget $80 million proposed by Mayor Spencer  /  $73.4 million proposed by Act 47 consultants

Pottstown, PA = 22,377 population  /  Budget $38 million

Tell me again how there is nothing left to cut from Pottstown’s pork-a-palooza budget!

Reading and its outside state-paid consultants are planning a new push to get state approval for higher commuter and earned income taxes, to bail out the city’s 2013 budget that’s millions of dollars from being balanced.

Otherwise, the city will have to cut still more staff and critical operations, hike property taxes by 15 percent and levy a streetlight assessment.

“This budget will not work,” Councilman Jeffrey S. Waltman said of the $73.4 million proposal during Saturday’s eighth budget session.

Waltman said the staff and program eliminations the city’s had to make over recent years are like getting a slow drip of cyanide that’s killing city services.  The city is down 150 jobs over a few years ago.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=422363